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Amid growing internal concern about poor fundraising and the direction of his presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain's top advisers bluntly told backers on Tuesday of plans to overhaul the campaign and delay its formal announcement until after a major speech on Iraq.

"This is clearly a moment in the campaign that says, ‘Hello? Wake up!' " finance chairman Tom Loeffler said in a telephone interview. "It’s not a time to jog anymore. It’s a time to sprint in the fundraising efforts. We have learned the political fundraising realities of 2007, and we are making the proper adjustments."

Drawing on some of the successful fundraising techniques of President Bush’s two campaigns for the White House, the McCain campaign now plans to mirror the Bush-Cheney campaign’s Pioneers, Rangers and Mavericks with the McCain 50s, McCain 100s, McCain 200s and other elite designations for top fundraisers who agree to raise $50,000, $100,000, $200,000 or more.

The plan also includes daily, weekly and monthly reports and benchmarks – the "metrics" that Bush-Cheney used in 2004 to promote competition, discipline and accountability.

The changes have been in the works for awhile but were rolled out after McCain, who once looked to be the prohibitive favorite in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, announced he had raised $12.5 million in the first quarter of year, compared with Rudy Giuliani’s $15 million and Mitt Romney’s stunningly strong $21 million.

Many Republicans had believed McCain's chief impediment would be his age, since he would be 72 at his inauguration, the oldest of any president. But instead he now faces a forest of hurdles, including continued skepticism from the party's conservative base and mocking coverage of his televised assertions that Iraq is safer than portrayed by the media.

McCain has called for years for more U.S. troops in Iraq. But now that Bush has adopted a similar policy, the senator risks being too closely associated with the administration's post-invasion failures. This week, McCain aides even had to fight off claims by current and former Democratic senators that the maverick senator had flirted with joining their ranks.

McCain continued a Middle East trip Tuesday, while top aides back home scrambled to admit problems while still convincing backers and reporters that they had solved them.

The Arizona senator, who is technically still exploring a second bid for the White House, had been planning to officially launch his campaign in early April, but will now probably delay it until later this month.

The kickoff was moved back for an Iraq policy address he is to deliver April 11, tentatively at Virginia

Military Institute, talking about the importance of succeeding - and the consequences of failing – in Iraq. His presidential candidacy, which has so far lacked the luster of his first in 2000, could rise or fall on the issue, since he strongly supported the president on Iraq, particularly his plan to "surge" 30,000 or so additional troops into the country.

A pair of top McCain campaign leaders, recently named general co-chairs, will now have carte blanche over the sprawling campaign organization based in Crystal City, Va. Loeffler, a former congressman from Texas, is also finance chairman. The other, Phil Gramm, is the former senator from Texas who ran unsuccessfully for president.

McCain is reported to be concerned not only with the disappointing fundraising but also with spending.

"He’s very worried about the burn rate," said a key McCain supporter. "They’re bringing Phil Gramm in to get the spending side under control, and they’re bringing Tom in to try to raise more money. We feel good about both of them. I feel like the campaign is starting over again."

Campaign manager Terry Nelson, who was national political director of Bush-Cheney ’04, said he is convinced McCain now has the right plan. Nelson said the campaign has already shown its strength in early states with a ground organization that has turned out enthusiastic crowds to see McCain.

“This is a campaign that is built to win – it’s going to win,” Nelson said. “I don’t think you could talk to

any of the other campaigns and find they wouldn’t want to be the John McCain campaign in terms of its overall strength.”

Loeffler has presided over many of the conference calls, which blended enthusiasm with a candid acknowledgment of the need to buckle down. And he is steeped in the Bush way, having served as Texas co-chairman for George H.W. Bush in 1988 and national finance co-chairman for the Bush-Cheney campaign of 2000.

Before Loeffler took the tiller, the campaign held two fundraisers in January, two in February and 20 in

March. Now, 30 are scheduled for April.

As a sign of strength, aides noted that McCain had nearly 50,000 donors, about the same as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). All but $48,000 of McCain's money was raised for the primary, giving him the opening to harvest later contributions for the general election from the same pool of supporters.

McCain’s strategists are eager, though, to increase the metabolism of their financial backers, who have made remarkable commitments. According to campaign sources, more than 100 supporters have agreed to raise more than $100,000 each. A substantial number pledged to raise $200,000. And some have pledged to raise more than $1 million each – all in increments of $4,600, the most an individual can give to the primary and general campaign treasuries.